Effect of annealing on electron field emission properties of hydrogen-freeamorphous carbon films

In this paper, a series of 200-nm-thick, hydrogen-free, amorphous carbon (a -C) films deposited on heavily doped Si (111) by filtered are deposition (F AD) were isothermally annealed at 200, 400, 600, 800, and 1000 degreesC for 30 min. Electron field emission from these films was studied by using a di ode structure device. It was shown that field emission properties of the fi lms were degraded with increasing annealing temperatures. But after being a nnealed at 800 degreesC for 30 min, the a-C film showed enhanced field emis sion properties compared with the unannealed a-C film. Atomic force microsc opy (AFM) showed that a-C film annealed at 800 degreesC had dense protrusio ns on the surface. It was shown that annealing can have a remarkable effect on field-emission properties of the a-C films. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B .V. All rights reserved.